A few years ago, I decided to take Carter on a one-on-one trip. I wanted some place close enough to get to quickly, but packed with fun things in a big city atmosphere for him to experience. Seattle seemed like a perfect fit, and it was! He was almost 9 at the time, and it was the perfect age to explore a city together. Fast forward three years later, and it was Kendall's turn. She's six months shy of being 9, but I knew she could handle it.
So, off we went on our mom-and-daughter adventure!
Traveling is always exhausting in some way. For Kendall, it was the walking. Anyone who has traveled to Seattle and taken that ridiculously LONG walk from the terminal to the Link Light Rail knows that I'm talking about. There has to be an easier way! Kendall really enjoyed the Link, though it was dark by that point in the evening, so her views were limited. But she liked counting how many people got on/off at each station, as well as tracking how many stops were left on the map. Once we reached our stop, it was a block and a half to our hotel. She stepped out of the station and looked up at all the tall building and lights and said "oh my god, this city is huge!" She wasn't quite sure what to make of all the street people, so I just steered her through and around, and bee-lined it to the hotel. We checked in, dumped our bags, and both announced almost immediately that we were starving. It was dark and I didn't feel like venturing too far with Kendall, so we actually opted for a delicious Mexican restaurant on the ground floor of our hotel. It was delicious! Kendall's favorite part was that her beans and rice came in a green tortilla-chip bowl.
Travel, late night, and a big dinner made for a quick bedtime for her:
Her first steps out into the big city the following morning. Now she was REALLY impressed with the tall buildings. "Is it always this LOUD?" There was plenty of street noise, coupled with various construction projects, garbage trucks, etc.
I took her down to Pike Market to visit my favorite bakery in Seattle:
We grabbed some pastries to eat on the bus to our first adventure.
While many things are within walking distance of downtown, the Woodland Park Zoo is not. While we were on the bus, I checked the weather because it was drizzling just a bit and I was certain the forecast showed zero rain for our weekend in Seattle. The radar showed just a blip of rain that would stop in about 10 minutes. And it was truly accurate. When we got to the zoo, the rain stopped after a few minutes and there wasn't a single drop the remainder of our trip.
I'm not a big fan of zoos, at all. Woodland Park, however, does it right. The areas where the animals are contained are open and expansive. If an animal must be kept in a zoo, this is how it should be. Room to move about, similar to their natural habitat (or at close as we can get here in the U.S.). We really had a lot of fun, though we ran into the same problem as I did on my trip with Carter: this zoo is HUGE. It took hours and we only covered about three-quarters of the entire property. Kendall's legs were spent by that point, so we decided to catch the bus and head back into downtown Seattle for our other adventures.
One of the best deals when visiting cities like Seattle, where there are multiple tourist attractions, is the City Pass. This really is the best bang for your buck. We hit five attractions for a fractions of the cost we would have paid for those five individually.
Next up was the Pacific Science Center. Kendall was really looking forward to this, even though she had no clue what it was about. The majority of the things at PacSci are hands-on and really fun for the kids.
After the Pacific Science Center, we went next door to the Space Needle. Another great thing about City Pass is not having to wait in long lines for tickets. Most places offer kiosks where you scan your City Pass and bypass the lines. We walked up and immediately got in line for the tour that started right then, instead of waiting in line to pick a later time.
Kendall's favorite thing about the Space Needle was the glass floor, and then a floor below, the revolving floor. She was really impressed - "the floor moves, mom!"
Our hotel is just a block and a half from Pike Market, so it was really easy for us to zip down. We found a delicious (and stupidly overpriced) little cupcake shop, where we picked out some goodies.
We also found a great spot for dinner, where we shared some clam chowder.
The view wasn't too shabby either!
It was a lot packed into that Saturday, but we had a fantastic time exploring!
